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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Social & political philosophy
Loren Lomasky is a leading advocate of a rights-based libertarian
approach to political and social issues. This volume collects
fifteen of his articles that have appeared since his influential
volume Persons, Rights, and the Moral Community (OUP, 1987)
alongside one new essay. The volume represents Lomasky's more
recent efforts at constructing the underpinnings of liberal rights
theory, in which he formulates a series of questions about the
nature and scope of rights and rights holders. Among the questions
Lomasky addresses: In what way is classical utilitarianism
fundamentally illiberal? To what extent might utilitarian
cost-benefit analyses be admissible within rights-upholding
political theory? Does it even make sense to speak of maximizing
liberty? How can this be understood in Hobbesian, Kantian, and
Rawlsian theoretical settings? In a world in which rights-talk is
ubiquitous, what is the role of traditional virtues such as loyalty
and charity? Is it inconsistent to espouse both an austere
classical liberalism and a social safety net? Liberalism is most
often presented as a theory about the internal contours of the
state, but how does it speak to the relationships between one state
and another? Between the state and would-be immigrants? In a world
displaying massive cross-border inequalities, does justice require
the extension of aid from the rich to the poor? The book opens with
an unpublished essay, "Everything Old is New Again: The Death and
Rebirth of Classical Liberalism," which features a history of the
century-long decline of traditional liberalism and its remarkable,
unanticipated return to vitality in the second half of the 20th
century. It then offers the prospectus for a libertarian research
program for the next half century. "Lomasky is one of the most
brilliant political philosophers of his generation and also has a
great gift with the pen. He instead picks away at bad arguments and
bad rhetoric whether in general agreement with his priors or not.
And he likes to entertain unusual twists on arguments. The upshot
is a wonderful journey through deep questions in political
philosophy and organization. "-Peter Boettke, University Professor
of Economics & Philosophy, George Mason University
Historically speaking, our vices, like our virtues, have come in
two basic forms: intellectual and moral. One of the main purposes
of this book is to analyze a set of specifically political vices
that have not been given sufficient attention within political
theory but that nonetheless pose enduring challenges to the
sustainability of free and equitable political relationships of
various kinds. Political vices like hubris, willful blindness, and
recalcitrance are persistent dispositions of character and conduct
that imperil both the functioning of democratic institutions and
the trust that a diverse citizenry has in the ability of those
institutions to secure a just political order of equal moral
standing, reciprocal freedom, and human dignity. Political vices
embody a repudiation of the reciprocal conditions of politics and,
as a consequence of this, they represent a standing challenge to
the principles and values of the mixed political regime we call
liberal-democracy. Mark Button shows how political vices not only
carry out discrete forms of injustice but also facilitate the
habituation in and indifference toward systemic forms of social and
political injustice. They do so through excesses and deficiencies
in human sensory and communicative capacities relating to voice
(hubris), vision (moral blindness), and listening (recalcitrance).
Drawing on a wide range of intellectual resources, including
ancient Greek tragedy, social psychology, moral epistemology, and
democratic theory, Political Vices gives new consideration to a
list of "deadly vices" that contemporary political societies can
neither ignore as a matter of personal "sin" nor publicly disregard
as a matter of mere bad choice, and it provides a democratic
account that outlines how citizens can best contend with our most
troubling political vices without undermining core commitments to
liberalism or pluralism.
The Grundrisse is widely regarded as one of Marx's most important
texts, with many commentators claiming it is the centrepiece of his
entire oeuvre. It is also, however, a notoriously difficult text to
understand and interpret. In this - the first guide and
introduction to reading the Grundrisse - Simon Choat helps us to
make sense of a text that is both a first draft of Capital and a
major work in its own right. As well as offering a detailed
commentary on the entire text, this guide explains the Grundrisse's
central themes and arguments and highlights its impact and
influence. The Grundrisse's discussions of money, labour, nature,
freedom, the role of machinery, and the development and dynamics of
capitalism have influenced generations of thinkers, from
Anglo-American historians such as Eric Hobsbawm and Robert Brenner
to Continental philosophers like Antonio Negri and Gilles Deleuze,
as well as offering vital insights into Marx's methodology and the
trajectory of his thought. Contemporary examples are used
throughout this guide both to illuminate Marx's terminology and
concepts and to illustrate the continuing relevance of the
Grundrisse. Readers will be offered guidance on: -Philosophical and
Historical Context -Key Themes -Reading the Text -Reception and
Influence
Hegel's philosophy of religion contains an implicit political
theology. When viewed in connection with his wider work on
subjectivity, history and politics, this political theology is a
resource for apocalyptic thinking. In a world of climate change,
inequality, oppressive gender roles and racism, Hegel can be used
to theorise the hope found in the end of that world. Histories of
apocalyptic thinking draw a line connecting the medieval prophet
Joachim of Fiore and Marx. This line passes through Hegel, who
transforms the relationship between philosophy and theology by
philosophically employing theological concepts to critique the
world. Jacob Taubes provides an example of this Hegelian political
theology, weaving Christianity, Judaism and philosophy to develop
an apocalypticism that is not invested in the world. Taubes awaits
the end of the world knowing that apocalyptic destruction is also a
form of creation. Catherine Malabou discusses this relationship
between destruction and creation in terms of plasticity. Using
plasticity to reformulate apocalypticism allows for a form of
apocalyptic thinking that is immanent and materialist. Together
Hegel, Taubes and Malabou provide the resources for thinking about
why the world should end. The resulting apocalyptic pessimism is
not passive, but requires an active refusal of the world.
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This book offers an in-depth analysis as to how and why women have
been widely associated with madness since ancient times. The first
part of the book comprises a historical survey of various
perceptions of madness across the centuries, while the second part
of the book covers a wide selection of literary works by American
and English writers who dealt with this subject in their works. In
this part of the book, the authors examine selected works of
literature from a feminist perspective by also drawing on the works
of influential theorists of feminist criticism. The authors further
show how these writers, who have been influenced by various
philosophers and theoreticians, critically examine women's madness
in their fiction.
At once narrative and reflective, Loving Immigrants in America: An
Experiential Philosophy of Personal Interaction is a philosophical
account of Daniel Campos's experience as a Latin American immigrant
to the United States of America. A series of interrelated personal
essays together convey this experience of walking or sauntering,
going on road trips, reading American literature in the southern
United States, playing association football (soccer or futbol),
churchgoing, and Latin dancing in the U.S. This book's central
motif is the caring saunterer, who is understood to be a person who
makes him or herself at home anywhere, even as a Latino immigrant
in the U.S. The narrative essays convey one immigrant's experience
seeking an affective, social, and intellectual home in a new land.
The intertwined philosophical reflections lead to the
recommendation of an ethic of love-resilient love-for the
day-to-day interactions and long-term relations between immigrants
and hosts in this country. The author's aim is to establish an open
and earnest philosophical dialogue with critical readers interested
in the problems surrounding immigration in the U.S. today. He
writes as an American philosopher-in the continental sense of
North, Central, and South America-whose reflections provide an
accessible and provocative angle for the development of insight
into the experiences of immigrants in the United States. Thus he
brings philosophical reflection drawn from experience, in the broad
American tradition, to bear on current issues-on the problems of
people and not of philosophers, as John Dewey might put it.
Solidarity Beyond Borders is a collection on international ethics
by a multidisciplinary team of scholars from four continents. The
volume explores ethical and political dimensions of transnational
solidarity in the emerging multipolar world. Analyzing global
challenges of the world plagued by poverty, diseases, injustice,
inequality and environmental degradation, the contributors - rooted
in diverse cultures and ethical traditions - voice their support
for 'solidarity beyond borders'. Bringing to light both universally
shared ethical insights as well as the irreducible diversity of
ethical perceptions of particular problems helps the reader to
appreciate the chances and the challenges that the global community
- more interconnected and yet more ideologically fragmented than
ever before - faces in the coming decades. Solidarity Beyond
Borders exemplifies an innovative approach to the key issues of
global ethics which takes into account the processes of economic
globalization, leading to an ever deeper interdependence of peoples
and states, as well as the increasing cultural and ideological
fragmentation which characterize the emerging multipolar world
order.
On the Pleasure of Hating, William Hazlitt's classic contemplation
of human hatred, is in this edition accompanied by several of his
finest essays. As one of England's most distinguished wits of the
early 19th century, William Hazlitt was an accomplished author,
painter and critic whose barbed prose was notorious in literary
circles at the time. Hazlitt wrote the titular essay of this
collection in 1826, when his personal circumstances were strained;
we thus find his tone both markedly resentful and embittered. On
the Pleasure of Hating is, however, among the finest and most
consistently insightful and lucid works Hazlitt ever wrote. Perhaps
Hazlitt's greatest claim to prowess was his ability to produce
succinct and quotable passages. Each of the six essays in this
compendium contain prime examples of the perceptive phrases and
summations which Hazlitt regularly produced in his prime.
What do traditional Indigenous institutions of governance offer to
our understanding of the contemporary challenges faced by the
Navajo Nation today and tomorrow? Guided by the Mountains looks at
the tensions between Indigenous political philosophy and the
challenges faced by Indigenous nations in building political
institutions that address contemporary problems and enact "good
governance." Specifically, it looks at Navajo, or Dine, political
thought, focusing on traditional Dine institutions that offer "a
new (old) understanding of contemporary governance challenges"
facing the Navajo Nation. Arguing not only for the existence but
also the persistence of traditional Navajo political thought and
policy, Guided by the Mountains asserts that "traditional"
Indigenous philosophy provides a model for creating effective
governance institutions that address current issues faced by
Indigenous nations. Incorporating both visual interpretations and
narrative accounts of traditional and contemporary Dine
institutions of government from Dine philosophers, the book is the
first to represent Indigenous philosophy as the foundation behind
traditional and contemporary governance. It also explains how Dine
governance institutions operated during Pre-Contact and
Post-Contact times. This path-breaking book stands as the
first-time normative account of Dine philosophy.
This volume traces the topic of affect across Lyotard's corpus and
accounts for Lyotard's crucial and original contribution to the
thinking of affect. Highlighting the importance of affect in
Lyotard's philosophy, this work offers a unique contribution to
both affect theory and the reception of Lyotard. Affect indeed
traverses Lyotard's philosophical corpus in various ways and under
various names: "figure" or "the figural" in Discourse, Figure,
"unbound intensities" in his "libidinal" writings, "the feeling of
the differend" in The Differend, "affect" and "infantia" in his
later writings. Across the span of his work, Lyotard insisted on
the intractability of affect, on what he would later call the
"differend" between affect and articulation. The singular awakening
of sensibility, affect both traverses and escapes articulation,
discourse, and representation. Lyotard devoted much of his
attention to the analysis of this traversal of affect in and
through articulation, its transpositions, translations, and
transfers. This volume explores Lyotard's account of affect as it
traverses the different fields encompassed by his writings
(philosophy, the visual arts, the performing arts, literature,
music, politics, psychoanalysis as well as technology and
post-human studies).
Hegel's Philosophy of Right has long been recognized as the only
systematic alternative to the dominant social contract tradition in
modern political philosophy. Dean Moyar here takes on the difficult
task of reading and representing Hegel's view of justice with the
same kind of intuitive appeal that has made social contract theory,
with its voluntary consent and assignment of rights and privileges,
such an attractive model. Moyar argues that Hegelian justice
depends on a proper understanding of Hegel's theory of value and on
the model of life through which the overall conception of value,
the Good, is operationalized. Closely examining key episodes in
Phenomenology of Spirit and the entire Philosophy of Right, Moyar
shows how Hegel develops his account of justice through an
inferentialist method whereby the content of right unfolds into
increasingly thick normative structures. He asserts that the theory
of value that Hegel develops in tandem with the account of right
relies on a productive unity of self-consciousness and life, of
pure thinking and the natural drives. Moyar argues that Hegel's
expressive account of the free will enables him to theorize rights
not simply as abstract claims, but rather as realizations of value
in social contexts of mutual recognition. Moyar shows that Hegel's
account of justice is a living system of institutions centered on a
close relation of the economic and political spheres and on an
understanding of the law as developing through practices of public
reason. Moyar defends Hegel's metaphysics of the State as an
account of the sovereignty of the Good, and he shows why Hegel
thought that philosophy needs to offer an account of world history
and reformed religion to buttress the modern social order.
Rhetoric, Humor, and the Public Sphere: From Socrates to Stephen
Colbert investigates classical and contemporary understandings of
satire, parody, and irony, and how these genres function within a
deliberative democracy. Elizabeth Benacka examines the rhetorical
history, theorization, and practice of humor spanning from ancient
Greece and Rome to the contemporary United States. In particular,
this book focuses on the contemporary work of Stephen Colbert and
his parody of a conservative media pundit, analyzing how his humor
took place in front of an uninitiated audience and ridiculed a
variety of problems and controversies threatening American
democracy. Ultimately, Benacka emphasizes the importance of humor
as a discourse capable of calling forth a group of engaged citizens
and a source of civic education in contemporary society.
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